Rudy Giuliani accuses Michael Cohen of tampering with Trump recording

In addition to releasing the McDougal tape, Cohen has also claimedTrump had advance notice of Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer in 2016, a notion the president has previously denied.

Donald Trump Jr, accompanied by his brother-in-law Jared Kushner and then campaign chairman Paul Manafort, had in June 2016 met a group of people including the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who had offered politically sensitive information about Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate.

Saying that the recording played on CNN appears "doctored" and incomplete, Mr. Giuliani said in a TV interview that Mr. Cohen "abruptly ended that recording" as soon as Donald Trump said the word "check" during a conversation about paying a Playboy model who alleges she had an affair with President Trump over 10 years ago.

"I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr.", Trumptweeted Friday. "I'd never prosecute a case on this guy's testimony", Giuliani said.

"There are 12 others - maybe 11 or 12 others - out of the 183 in which the president is discussed at any length by Cohen, mostly with reporters", he added.

And for everything that the special investigation has thrown up, there is no publicly known clear evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian state to swing the U.S. presidential election.

"If [Cohen and his attorney Lanny Davis] are willing to do that, they're willing to do nearly anything", Geraldo said.

He similarly told ABC News in early July, "I have no concerns that Michael Cohen is going to do anything but tell the truth".

The former NY mayor's criticisms of Cohen come just a few months after he called him "an honest, honorable lawyer" in a separate ABC News interview.

Earlier this month, Nunberg was reportedly pitching himself for television appearances with the description of "Michael Cohen's Friend".

"I like him personally", Nunberg said.

"My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will", Mr. Cohen said. Christie said that if Cohen wants to make a deal with prosecutors, he may be hurting himself by making claims publicly about Trump.

In the recording, which Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis released to the cable network, the two discuss a possible payment to AMI, the publishing company that purchased story rights from McDougal about the alleged affair. The Trump Org CFO also set up a monthly retainer through the company that was used to reimburse Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.